The Muppet Show Season 2 slated for early 2007 release
Numerous issues have delayed the DVD box set, but release is expected during the first quarter of 2007
Fifteen months ago "The Muppet Show Season 1" was released on DVD, and ever since fans have been asking when they would be able to get their hands on season 2.
Pinning down the release hasn't been simple for Disney. Originally it was slated for February, then bumped to a tentative slot in late Summer and then inexplicably delayed again. Legal clearances, material creation/restoration, marketing schemes, leadership changes, production priority schedules -- the reasons are complex and numerous.
Brain Henson said earlier this year when IGN asked about the Muppet Show Season 2, that "Disney is so formulaic and careful and secretive about their DVD release plans" that even he didn't know when the set would be out.
Back in July Muppets.com launched a poll to allow fans to vote on the cover art for the upcoming second season release. Just a few weeks ago the poll was taken down, and the fans' speculation started up again. What does it mean? Is it coming? Was it canceled? What's going on?
Well, we just got word from a reliable source within Buena-Vista Home Entertainment that there is no need to panic. The set is indeed coming. It's taken a while but it will be worth the wait. We were told they are "expecting release in the first quarter of 2007" (after the holidays' DVD production pushes).
They'd like to tell more about it, but everything is "top secret" right now. An official announcement with all the details is around the corner.
The set will be out in 2007 and season 3 is also expected for the future (although there are no details on timing).
CBC VP makes impassioned plea to Cdns
TORONTO (CP) - There have been some bright spots on CBC-TV's fall schedule this year - "The Rick Mercer Report" is a prime example - but overall, ratings at the public broadcaster have been in a free fall.
The dismal performances of such highly anticipated fare as "Hockey: A People's History" stand in stark contrast to the cash and viewers that private broadcasters are ringing up on the strength of the wildly popular American shows that Canadian viewers crave - programs like "Grey's Anatomy" and "Desperate Housewives."
Richard Stursberg, executive vice-president of CBC English television, is endlessly frustrated when people laud the success of CTV and Global compared to the struggles of his network.
"You hear people say 'Wow, CTV's doing great!' " Stursberg said after a speech Tuesday to the Economic Club of Toronto. "But how can CTV lose? They go down to the U.S. and go shopping for the highest-rated shows on American television."
American TV is great, Stursberg is quick to point out. But the networks that buy it don't have to pay to produce it, and they make hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour in ad revenue with each broadcast.
And, he adds, American shows have "nothing to do with our Canadian life, values, mores and culture."
Stursberg's speech to a business crowd of about 150 was a clarion call to Canadians to give home-grown television a chance.
"While English Canadians enjoy more choice in television programming than almost anyone else in the world, millions of Canadians tune in weekly to foreign - essentially American - content," he said.
"The result is that English Canadians are the only people in the industrialized world who seem to prefer the content of another country to their own. We believe this is the most important cultural challenge facing English Canada."
The CBC is crucial to winning that battle, Stursberg said, saying the public broadcaster "plays many roles in the public life of our country" while having its budget slashed repeatedly by the federal government.
Some in attendance were impressed by Stursberg's impassioned appeal to Canadians to start taking pride in the CBC.
"It's been many years since a CBC executive publicly defended the cultural importance of the network," said Patrick Gossage, head of the public relations firm Media Profile, which handles much of the publicity for CBC shows. "It's great to see."
Canadians listen to Canadian music and read Canadian novels and newspapers, Stursberg pointed out.
"But when it comes to the most popular forms of narrative - television and feature films - Canadians overwhelmingly prefer the stories of another country."
In an effort to buck the trend, Stursberg said the CBC is making more programming by, for and about Canadians.
"Canadians will watch home-grown programming when it is beautifully made, engaging and designed for them, when it is rooted in their sense of humour, their values, their lives and their history," he said.
The network is also cutting back on the number of specials and miniseries, and instead focusing on longer running series.
Hiring a new executive programming team and conducting a massive audience study is helping the CBC achieve its goals, he said.
But Stursberg acknowledged that turning the situation around is a tremendously difficult battle given that Canada is third-last - just ahead of New Zealand and the U.S. - in the lowest rank of per capita taxpayer support for public networks. At $33, that's less than a third of the $124 per capita that the BBC gets.
"How do we do it? By hiring the cleverest and most creative people we can and see if we can get there by being smart, because we sure can't get there by being rich."
Strummer Documentary To Premiere At Sundance
"The Future is Unwritten," Julien Temple's new film on the life and career of late Clash frontman Joe Strummer, will have its U.S. premiere in mid-January at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
Taking its name from one of Strummer's favorite phrases, the film includes interviews with such Strummer disciples as Bono, actors Johnny Depp and John Cusack, members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Clash, old friends and those who squatted with him in condemned buildings in London before the Clash took off.
Also featured is unseen footage of Strummer's early life, as well as unearthed clips of the Clash and the Mescaleros, the band he fronted in the years prior to his 2002 death.
Using a combination of old interviews collected from journalists, as well as tapes of Strummer's BBC radio show, "The Future is Unwritten" finds Strummer "very much narrating and DJing his life story," says Temple, renown for his Sex Pistols movie "The Filth and the Fury."
The film is slated to debut in theaters via Sony Pictures in the U.S. by early summer, followed by a DVD and soundtrack release. Temple tells Billboard.com the music in the film spans Strummer's record collection, and includes techno, Hawaiian and Latin American music, as well as songs by his own bands and tracks from Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, rockabilly hero Eddie Cochran and Jamaica's Ernest Ranglin.
In a nod to one of Strummer's favorite late-life pastimes, the movie finds friends and admirers remembering the singer around campfires all over the world. Says Temple, "We had to have a bonfire on Mulholland Drive in L.A., where you can't put out a cigarette without getting dragged off by the fire brigade, and it didn't look very good until the fire officer said, 'What's the project?' We said, 'It's Joe Strummer,' and he said, 'In that case, you can have the license.'"
"And that was the effect all around: We had a runner on the shoot in New York, who got stopped by a cop for not having a safety belt and talking on a mobile phone," Temple continues. "The cop was just about to give him a ticket, when he saw the production thing on the dashboard, looked at it, and said, 'No fine. No ticket. This is for Joe.'"
"He had that effect on people," he says. "They really have a great deal of love and respect for this guy. But this is not a hero-worship film. Hopefully it does show a real human being, because that's what Joe was, first and foremost. He certainly wasn't a saint of any kind. Hopefully, the film does give you a rounded portrait of the man and his life."
"The Future is Unwritten" comes on the heels of a special Clash exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which opened last month, and the Nov. 14 release of "The Singles," a Legacy box set collecting the band's 19 U.K. singles.
TV series get bundled up
Just as TV sets are getting bigger and bigger, so are DVD collections.
After years of selling season sets of popular shows, suppliers now are packaging more box sets of complete TV series.
Stronger-than-expected sales of HBO Video's $300, 20-disc, six-season set of Sex and the City in November gave the marketing team a whole new strategy to use with other series: releasing the set in the lucrative fourth quarter after the series' run had ended.
"We experienced tremendous success with Sex and the City, and it has continued selling at a steady pace," HBO's Sofia Chang says.
The pricey sets generally are released in limited editions of 10,000 to 50,000 and cost $30-$40 a set to produce. With list prices from $200 to $300, the profit potential for a complete series set can be 10 times that of a single DVD.
Bringing out a full-series set is "not unlike numerous releases of a film: a special edition, a director's cut, an ultimate collector's edition," says Twentieth Century Fox's Steve Feldstein.
A&E was one of the first to bundle an entire series in one box with The Avengers in 2001. Since then the company has released complete series of such cult shows as Kids in the Hall, The Prisoner and Monty Python's Flying Circus.
"We've always been about collectors," A&E's Kate Winn says. "The customer base for our megasets is not price-sensitive; they want to take ownership of a program that has meaning to them."
And the sets make great gifts.
But Gord Lacey, who runs the popular website TVShowsOnDVD.com, says the sets can "deliver a big blow to the loyal customers who have purchased all the season sets over the last three to five years."
That complaint won't be heard with Get Smart.
HBO is releasing all five seasons of the classic spy spoof in a 25-disc set. Get Smart: The Complete Collection ($200) goes on sale Nov. 15 exclusively through the Time-Life website. It will arrive in stores next fall.
Will Borat's Glory Extend Through Week 2?
Twentieth Century Fox film executives are insisting that they were justified in reducing the number of theaters showing Borat to 837 prior to last weekend's opening.
The film took in $26.5 million, an unprecedented figure for a film opening in so few theaters.
Fox distribution chief Bruce Snyder claims that the decision to cut the number of theaters by nearly two thirds will work in favor of the movie next weekend because its initial success will increase awareness of it.
Daily Variety reported on Tuesday that even now, only 57 percent of people surveyed at theaters are aware of the film versus 90 percent for The Santa Clause 3.
However, other industry observers contend that the box-office results for Borat over the weekend exposed the shortcomings of tracking surveys and the risk of relying too heavily on them.
Fox is planning to expand Borat to about 2,400 theaters next weekend.
Meanwhile, The Santa Clause 3 turned out to be something of a disappointment.
Earning $19.5 million on 3,458 screens, it was off 32.8 percent from the $29-million debut of 2002's The Santa Clause 2, which eventually earned $139 million.
However, it was duly noted that this time around, the Disney film faced competition for the family audience from Aardman/DreamWorks Animation's Flushed Away, which exceeded analysts' expectations by opening in third place with $18.9 million.
Johnny Depp plunders People's Choice nominations
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Pirates of the Caribbean" star Johnny Depp, Hollywood's top-grossing leading man this year, led the field of People's Choice Award contenders announced on Tuesday as he snatched up three nominations.
Depp, the flamboyant buccaneer Jack Sparrow in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," was nominated as favorite male movie star, along with Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, and clinched a separate bid as best male action star, competing in that category with Samuel L. Jackson and Jet Li.
Depp, 43, voted favorite male star last year, shared a third nomination with "Pirates" co-star Keira Knightley in the category for favorite on-screen match-up.
"Dead Man's Chest" ranks as the highest-grossing film of 2006, raking in nearly $422 million domestically and more than $1 billion worldwide in theatrical ticket sales.
The film was a sequel to 2003's "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," which earned Depp his first Oscar nomination for his Jack Sparrow performance, one of the signature roles of his career.
Unlike the Oscars and other entertainment awards in which nominees and winners are chosen by industry peers, the People's Choice Awards are determined by the public. In previous years, polling for the awards was conducted by the Gallup Organization.
This year and last, Web-based market research group Knowledge Networks recruited a sample of "pop culture-involved" men and women to nominate their favorites from pre-selected candidates in various categories.
The top three selections for each category became nominees, and the winners will be chosen by a majority of online votes cast at the Web site www.pcavote.com. The 33rd Annual People's Choice Awards will be presented on January 9 in a nationally televised ceremony.
Other multiple nominees this year include Halle Berry, who starred in the blockbuster, "X-Men: The Last Stand," and picked up bids in two categories.
The Oscar winner faces off against Jennifer Aniston and last year's winner, Sandra Bullock, in the race for favorite female movie star. Berry's competitors in the race for favorite female action star are Kate Beckinsale and Uma Thurman.
Aniston also shared a nomination with Vince Vaughn, her off-screen paramour and co-star in "The Break-Up," in the race for best on-screen match-up, while Vaughn picked up a second nomination as favorite leading man, competing with Matt Damon and Brad Pitt.
Damon and his "The Departed" co-stars Jack Nicholson and Leonardo DiCaprio rounded out the roster of nominees in the favorite match-up category.
Country stars dominated the nominations for favorite male and female singers, with Faith Hill, Carrie Underwood, Trace Adkins, Kenny Chesney and Toby Keith among the contenders vying in those categories. Nominated for favorite musical group were Black Eyed Peas, Nickelback and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
New Releases, Nov. 7: Keith Urban, J.J. Cale and Eric Clapton, Josh Groban
Keith Urban "Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing"
The New Zealand-born country singer has received much publicity for stuff that has nothing to do with music over recent months. First, there was his marriage to Tom Cruise's ex, Nicole Kidman. More recently, he made headlines when he checked into a rehab center last month.
Now, he will try to make news with the release of his fifth CD, "Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing." The record follows the immensely successful "Be Here" (2004). Many folks are predicting that "Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing" will top the country charts and, quite possibly, the overall Billboard 200 album chart as well.
* * *
J.J. Cale and Eric Clapton "The Road to Escondido"
The two great guitarists team up on this new set of original tunes. The artists have enjoyed success together in the past--most notably when Cale penned two of Clapton's best-known hits, "After Midnight" and "Cocaine."
Cale wrote 11 of the 14 tracks on the new album. The record features a number of guest musicians, including guitarist/vocalist John Mayer, who turns up on the blues number "Hard to Thrill."
* * *
Josh Groban "Awake"
The multi-platinum-selling pop/classical vocalist returns with the follow-up to 2003's "Closer."
Most are expecting big things from "Awake," Groban's third studio recording. His previous studio sets, 2001's eponymous debut and "Closer," have each sold more than five million copies.
* * *
Andrea Bocelli "Under the Desert Sky"
This two-disc CD/DVD set captures Bocelli's first-ever pop concert, which was performed on a floating stage in Lake Las Vegas. "Under the Desert Sky" features the Tuscan-born superstar singing such songs as "Somos Novios" (a tune that Perry Como recorded as "It's Impossible") and "Can't Help Falling in Love," the old Elvis Presley hit done here as a duet with Katharine McPhee.
* * *
Sugarland "Enjoy the Ride"
The popular country act is hoping for another successful spin on the charts with its sophomore outing, "Enjoy the Ride." The set follows 2004's "Twice the Speed of Life," a work that featured the smash hit "Baby Girl.
* * *
Other new releases:
Mickey Avalon, "Mickey Avalon" (Myspace)
Blackmore's Night, "Winter Carols" (Locomotive)
Bowling for Soup, "Great Burrito Extortion Case" (Jive)
Karen Dalton, "In My Own Time" (Light in the Attic)
Foo Fighters, "Skin and Bones" (RCA)
PJ Harvey, "Peel Sessions 1991-2004" (Island)
Ricky Martin, "MTV Unplugged" (Panda Local)
Dave Matthews Band, "The Best of What's Around, Vol. 1" (RCA)
Pavement, "Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition" (Matador)
Pet Shop Boys, "Concrete: In Concert at the Mermaid Theatre" (EMI)
Alejandro Sanz, "El Tren de los Momentos" (Warner Bros.)
Shortbus, "Shortbus" (Team Love)
Michael W. Smith, "Stand" (Reunion)
Various artists, "Now That's What I Call Music 23" (Sony)
Frank Zappa, "Trance-Fusion" (Zappa)
Soundtracks and scores:
"The Departed" (Warner Bros.)
New 'Hulk' smash in 2008
Marvel has set a release date for its latest revamp of "The Incredible Hulk," aiming the big green guy at a key weekend in the summer of 2008.
In a press release the comic and multimedia giant announced that the newest "Hulk" film will open on Friday, June 27, 2008. That release date puts "Hulk" less than two months after the company's "Iron Man" opens on May 2.
Both movies are set to begin production next year, though "Hulk" is currently lacking a leading man, while the Jon Favreau-directed "Iron Man" will star Robert Downey Jr. and Terrence Howard.
The Ang Lee-directed "Hulk" opened to $62 million domestically in 2003, but word-of-mouth quickly set in and the worldwide total for the film stands at only $245 million. The confusingly titled remake/sequel/reimagining -- Marvel's press release alternates between calling it "The Hulk" and "The Incredible Hulk" -- will be directed by Louis Leterrier ("Unleashed").
Marvel also gave vague updates on a slew of other properties, noting that writers have been hired to work on "Captain America," "Nick Fury," "Thor" and "The Avengers" features, while a writer-director (Edgar Wright) is at work on "Ant-Man." "Black Panther," "Cloak & Dagger," "Doctor Strange," "Hawkeye," "Power Pack" and "Shang-Chi" were listed as potential post-2009 ventures.
Genesis to reunite for European tour
LONDON - Genesis will reunite next year for a "Turn It on Again" tour of Europe, their first tour in 15 years. The 20-date stadium tour, announced Tuesday, will open in Helsinki, Finland, on June 11 and end with a free concert in front of the Colosseum in Rome on July 14.
Genesis last toured in 1991. Phil Collins, who quit the band to go solo in 1996, said the reunion wasn't motivated by money.
"I think we are all loaded enough not to worry about where the next million or two is coming from," the 55-year-old singer said Tuesday. "I just felt now was the right time to have a go at it."
A series of U.S. dates will follow the European tour, said Collins, Mike Rutherford, 56, and Tony Banks, 56.
Genesis was founded in the mid-1960s by Rutherford, Banks, Anthony Phillips and Peter Gabriel, who left the group in 1975 and was replaced on vocals by drummer Collins. They became one of the biggest bands of the 1970s and `80s, with hits such as "Turn It on Again," "Follow You, Follow Me," "That's All" and "Invisible Touch."
Banks said the tour would let fans hear a side of the band that went beyond their hits.
"Genesis has another side to it, a more complex area of music," he said. "One side gets slightly more attention than the other. We are trying to reacquaint people. Genesis is not particularly a group mentioned very much these days and we want to remind people we did do a lot of things."
Faith Hill says CMA freakout was a joke
NEW YORK - Faith Hill insists she's no Kanye West. The country music superstar says she was just joking when cameras showed her screaming "WHAT?" in apparent anger when she lost the female vocalist of the year award to newcomer Carrie Underwood at the Country Music Association Awards on Monday night in Nashville.
"The idea that I would act disrespectful towards a fellow musician is unimaginable to me," Hill said in a statement. "For this to become a focus of attention given the talent gathered is utterly ridiculous. Carrie is a talented and deserving Female Vocalist of The Year."
Media outlets and blogs zeroed in on Hill's reaction after Underwood's name was announced at the ceremony. While other nominees — Sara Evans, Gretchen Wilson, Martina McBride — gave the typical gracious loser smile, Hill, who was standing backstage, turned to the camera and shouted "WHAT?"
Although her voice could not be heard, it was clear from her lips what she said. She looked visibly upset and then it looked as if she was storming off. The incident has been replayed endlessly on sites like YouTube.com.
However, Hill said it was all a joke, and her manager, Gary Borman, echoed that: "I've worked with Faith for many years now and the idea that she would ever insult or undermine another artist, let alone another human being's success is absolutely preposterous. Those who know her know that she's incapable of such actions," he said in a statement.
"She was being playful while the nominations were being read and playful after."
Underwood also didn't take it seriously, according to her publicist, Jessie Schmidt, who said that Hill spoke to Underwood after the show and that the two were fine.
Underwood, the 2005 "American Idol" champ, has become a triple platinum success since releasing her debut album late last year. Hill is a longtime darling of country music with crossover pop appeal.
This is the second time in less than a week that an awards show loss has resulted in an (apparent) on-camera freakout by a loser. Last week, Kanye West stormed the stage at the MTV Europe Music Awards and interrupted the speech of the winners, claiming his video deserved the honor.
...Spears files for divorce from Federline
LOS ANGELES - Britney Spears filed for divorced Tuesday from Kevin Federline, officials said. The Los Angeles County Superior Court filing cites "irreconcible differences," said court spokeswoman Kathy Roberts.
Spears, 24, married rapper Kevin Federline, 28, in 2004. They have a 1-year-old son, Sean Preston, and an infant son who was born Sept. 12. The couple have not confirmed the infant's name, which is reportedly Jayden James.
Actors group demands more Canadian drama on TV
The organization representing Canadian actors has called on the country's private broadcasters to invest more in homegrown television dramas.
"Canadian TV drama is still disappearing while our private broadcasters are spending at an all-time high on American programming," actor Howard Storey, the president of the British Columbia chapter of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, said in a news release.
ACTRA issued their challenge to private broadcasters during the annual Canadian Association of Broadcasters convention in Vancouver on Monday.
Gabrielle Miller, who plays diner proprietress Lacey Burrows on Corner Gas, said her show's success proves it is possible to appeal to Canadians with Canadian content.
"The support and commitment that this television series continues to receive has been critical and we need to build on this success by increased funding and scheduling support for more Canadian dramatic programming," she said.
"We're focusing on more reality television, when what we need is new rules to protect our Canadian cultural sovereignty and to get more homegrown dramas on our televisions."
ACTRA has already made a submission to the federal communications watchdog, the CRTC, calling for private broadcasters to spend at least seven per cent of advertising revenues on Canadian English-language dramas and schedule at least two more hours in prime time between Sunday and Thursday.
Appeal made amid stalled labour talks
The organization's stand comes at an awkward time, as it is currently embroiled in a protracted labour dispute with the Canadian Film & Television Production Association and its Quebec equivalent.
Talks on a new Independent Production Agreement broke down after producers called for pay cuts of 10 to 25 per cent on film and TV productions shot in Canada.
ACTRA responded by calling on the producers to withdraw the demands before they would return to the bargaining table.
The producers association shot back by filing an 110-page complaint to the Ontario Labour Board accusing ACTRA of unfair labour practices.
Both sides in the acrimonious dispute are already blaming the other in the event of a work stoppage, which would occur if an agreement isn't reached when the current labour pact ends on Dec. 31, 2006.
Separate mediators have been appointed for both Quebec and Ontario and sidebar discussions geared to getting the sides talking again have been planned for Nov. 14.
Brooks & Dunn dominate at the CMA Awards
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Kenny Chesney won entertainer of the year and Brooks & Dunn's inspirational song "Believe" won three trophies, including single and song of the year, at the 40th Annual Country Music Association Awards Monday night.
"This year has in ways been the most emotionally satisfying year and also the most emotionally draining year of my life," said Chesney, who went through a high-profile marriage and split with actress Renee Zellweger last year. "There have been so many ups and downs, it's been like a huge emotional roller coaster ride."
Chesney also won the honor two years ago.
One of the night's more poignant moments came from a winner who wasn't even there — Keith Urban. The Aussie country star, who last month entered a rehabilitation center for alcohol abuse, won male vocalist of the year for the second year in a row.
When Urban's name was announced, he received a standing ovation, and his award was accepted by Ronnie Dunn. Dunn read a letter from Urban in which he thanked his friends and family and actress-wife Nicole Kidman, whom he married earlier this year: "To my wife, Nicole, I love you."
"I'm looking forward to coming home and seeing you all soon," Urban said in the letter.
Dunn added: "We love you Keith — good luck, brother."
Besides accepting the award for Urban, Dunn was busy accepting awards and also hosting the show along with his partner, Kix Brooks. The pair also won music video of the year for "Believe" and opened the night by performing "Building Bridges" with guests Vince Gill and Sheryl Crow.
"This has been another huge year for country music," Kix Brooks said. "Tonight, we're here together to show off what it's really all about, and that's the greatest music on the face of the Earth."
The gospel-tinged "Believe" was co-written by Ronnie Dunn and Craig Wiseman, who also co-wrote Tim McGraw's smash "Live Like You Were Dying." Both won song of the year honors for "Believe."
"Every time it comes on the radio now I have to pull over, like I'm hearing it for the first time," Wiseman said backstage of "Believe." "Ronnie really brought something to that song that's something beyond."
As expected, Brooks & Dunn also won vocal duo award. The group has owned the category since 1992, winning every year except in 2000 when Montgomery Gentry won.
"I'm sincerely shocked the voters haven't gotten tired of seeing us walk up there," Brooks said backstage.
"American Idol" winner Carrie Underwood won female vocalist and the Horizon Award.
"Two years ago I was sitting at home watching these very awards and watching all these other people win and having the best night of their life, and this is the best year of my life," Underwood said through tears.
Backstage, she said she was pleased to be nominated, let alone win two. "I would have taken male vocalist if they had given it to me," she joked.
The multiplatinum band Rascal Flatts took the vocal group award, capping what singer Gary LeVox described as an "amazing year."
"I thank God for giving us a stage to stand on and perform on every night," LeVox said.
Brad Paisley, who was shut out last year despite six nomination, won album of the year for "Time Well Wasted."
Before Monday's show, he and Dolly Parton also won musical event of the year for their spiritual song "When I Get Where I'm Going." It was Parton's first CMA award since 1996.
"I thank her so much for raising the bar on this song," Paisley said of the music icon, who was not there to accept. "Any time Dolly Parton sings on a song it becomes instantly better in every way."
The show returned to Nashville after one year in New York City. Brooks & Dunn and Paisley led all nominees with six.
Other multiple nominees included Chesney and Underwood with four each, and Rascal Flatts and Parton with three apiece.
All three of Parton's nods were for her vocals on Paisley's "When I Get Where I'm Going." The song was one of three spiritually themed tunes up for awards, the others being Brooks & Dunn's "Believe" and Underwood's "Jesus Take the Wheel."
The evening's performers included Underwood, Gretchen Wilson, Paisley, Chesney and Martina McBride. Miranda Lambert performed her rocking "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" then smashed her guitar at the end of the performance.
Much offstage talk centered on two high-profile nominees: Sara Evans and Urban.
Evans dropped out of the reality TV show "Dancing with the Stars" and filed for a divorce a few weeks ago. She and her husband traded charges of infidelity and the estrangement made tabloid headlines.
Evans, 35, was nominated for female vocalist of the year and sang her hit, "Real Fine Place to Start."
This year's show also was notable for superstar George Strait's induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Strait, 54, broke onto the charts in 1981 with "Unwound" and is still having hits. He performed his latest No. 1 single, "Give It Away."
"Who would have thought it?" Strait said in accepting the honor. He got a big cheer when he thanked his fans and remarked, "Don't think I don't realize why I'm here."
The nominees and winners are determined by the 6,000 members of the CMA.